‘Purple Rain’ Greatest Movie Soundtrack

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Prince Purple Rain Photo Singer Prince performs during a jam session at the Montreux Jazz Cafe after his concert at the 41st Montreux Jazz Festival, July 17, 2007. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

If you’ve hummed along, tapped your feet, or even danced in your seat while watching “Purple Rain,” “Saturday Night Fever” or “Trainspotting,” you’re not alone. The soundtracks from those movies have been named among the 50 greatest by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine. The full list will be revealed next month in a one-time Conde Nast magazine, Movies Rock, for subscribers of its 14 titles.

“Purple Rain” topped the chart even though it was described as “perhaps the best badly acted film ever,” editors at Vanity Fair said, while “Trainspotting” came in at No. 7 and “Saturday Night Fever” was eighth.

The Vanity Fair editors said the “Purple Rain” soundtrack was a flawless combination of “funk, R&B, pop, metal, and even psychedelia into a sound that defined the ’80s.” “A Hard Day’s Night” came in a No. 2, followed by “The Harder They Come,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The Graduate” and “Superfly.” “American Graffiti” and “The Big Chill” rounded out the top 10.

“Saturday Night Fever’s” soundtrack is “required listening for anyone looking to heat up the dance floor,” the editors said. “The white suit? Not so much.”

Movies Rock, which will feature stories and photos of the projects, stars, directors and musicians who created the selected movies, launches ahead of a two-hour CBS broadcast of the same title in December.

It’s rather lame to name what amounts to a Prince album with a crappy movie attached to it as the best movie soundtrack. Then again, it’s better than, say, “The Big Chill,” which is essentially just a Motown’s Greatest Hits collection; at least “Purple Rain” was original. The title track and “I Would Die 4 U” were monster hits and “Darling Nikki” was rather big, too.

“Saturday Night Fever” was much more influential, though, launching a whole (albeit brief) musical era. For that matter, both “Grease” and “American Graffiti” launched 50’s revival movements and the latter spawned “Happy Days” which begat both “Mork and Mindy” and “Laverne and Shirley.”

Source: Purple Rain greatest film soundtrack: Vanity Fair (Reuters/YahooNews)

Photo Credit: Denis Balibouse (Reuters)